Speaker: Megan Wu

How do we get a rover to Mars? Once it’s there, what do we do with it? How do we take rover selfies??

Learn about Mars rover operations first hand as Megan Wu, member of the Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity Rover and Mars 2020 Perseverance Rover science teams, describes her experiences with the daily operations of both rovers.

Megan Wu is a Senior Staff Scientist and Senior Mission Operations Specialist at Malin Space Science Systems in San Diego, where she has been operating cameras on Mars for over 18 years. She is currently the operations lead for the SHERLOC-WATSON camera on the Perseverance rover and also does camera operations using the MAHLI camera on Curiosity. She graduated from Caltech with a B.S. in Planetary Science, and received a Master’s degree in Geology from Arizona State University.

Megan has had the experience of living on “Mars time” not once but twice, at the beginning of each rover mission. Each new day on Mars brings new challenges, but taking pictures of Mars for a living usually makes it all worth it!

Harriet Preovolos, VP Programs
Carole Banka, President